Here we are, over 100 years later, and last-minute Christmas gifts are still a problem. Imagine a $50 bootjack in 1889! probably equiivalent to several hundred dollars today. Some of the gifts may sound quaint today, but perhaps some others might be useful for ideas even in the present!A rich man once said to me, "I have heard people say that if they had enough money they could easily select Christmas gifts. Now, for the last two hours, I have been trying to find something to suit my son-in-law. Finally, in despair, I have bought him a fifty-dollar bootjack that you could n't hire me to keep in the house."
A fifty-dollar bootjack! What a confused jumble my mind was for the next few minutes. Bootjacks, indeed! I was thinking of a bookstore I had visited that morning—of the many beautiful books, artistically printed and richly bound, which those fifty dollars would have purchased. Did not the son-in-law care for books? I fancy that he did. But the busy man who purchased that wonderful bootjack doubtless had given no thought to the matter of his Christmas gifts until nearly the 25th of December, that consummate flower of the whole year, and then he must needs buy one of the first things he saw, provided only that it did not cost too much or too little.
With the bootjack incident still in my mind, I shall suggest various gifts, just by way of benevolently preventing my fellow-creatures from receiving absurd or useless presents. Those who are wealthy can usually find lovely and artistic gifts at Tiffany's or stores of similar rank. My suggestions are for those lucky individuals with whom money is not so plentiful as to make the wish for a thing and its possession synonymous.
The most puzzling task at Christmas is to select presents for fathers and brothers. Two years ago, a certain young woman (this by way of reminiscence) failed to find anything she thought suitable for her brother. But after much perplexity a coffee cup and saucer, daintily decorated, was selected, and it was gratefully used at about three hundred and sixty breakfasts during the following year. The next year a cutglass salt-cellar and pepper-box were given. Besides these and similar articles, one might try canvas or linen slipper-cases, made to hang against the wall, inkstands and other articles for desks, silver match-boxes, razors (for which the traditional penny should be exacted), shaving-glasses, cases of shaving-paper, or, that always welcome friend, a silk muffler. A case for carrying collars and cuffs when traveling, is a useful present for many. The outside may be of any material available, and the lining should be of silk; but a stiff interlining of buckram should be inserted. In short, make it like a music-roll, but not so wide, and fasten it with a fancy leather strap and buckle. Decorate the outside with some pretty device,—the initials or monogram of the prospective owner.
I shall make no further suggestions of articles especially suitable for the sterner sex, but among the presents which will do equally well for either father or mother, brother or sister, may be mentioned umbrellas; umbrella-cases; chairs of more or less elaborate workmanship, from the pretty wicker or rattan chair to those which are profusely carved or richly upholstered; opera-glasses, gloves, handkerchiefs and handkerchiefcases, gold pencils, fountain pens, card-cases, napkin-rings, and books.
A little rule of mine in buying books may not come amiss. It is this: When a person's means will permit only a small library, never buy any book that will not bear reading more than once. Still, most of what is called "current literature" may be bought for a low price, the chances being that its flimsy binding will outwear its popularity.
This is what Charles Lamb says about the binding of books: "To be strong-backed and neat-bound is the desideratum of a volume. Magnificence comes after. This, when it can be afforded, is not to be lavished upon all kinds of books indiscriminately. I would not dress a set of magazines, for instance, in full suit. The dishabille or half-binding (with Russia backs ever) is our costume. A Shakspere or a Milton (unless the first editions), it were mere foppery to trick out in gay apparel. The possession of them confers no distinction. The exterior of them (the things themselves being so common), strange to say, raises no sweet emotions, no tickling sense of property in the owner. Thomson's 'Seasons,' again, looks best (I maintain it) a little torn and dog's-eared."
In regard to reading good books, Ruskin says: "Do you know, if you read this, you cannot read that—that what you lose to-day you cannot gain to-morrow? Will you go and gossip with your housemaid, or your stable-boy, when you may talk with queens and kings; or flatter yourself that it is with any worthy consciousness of your own claims to respect that you jostle with the common crowd for entree here, and audience there, when all the while this eternal court is open to you, with its society wide as the world, multitudinous as its days, the chosen, and the mighty, of every place and time? Into that you may enter always; in that you may take fellowship and rank according to your wish; from that, once entered into it, you can never be outcast but by your own fault; by your aristocracy of companionship there, your own inherent aristocracy will be assuredly tested, and the motives with which you strive to take high place in the society of the living, measured, as to all the truth and sincerity that are in them, by the place you desire to take in this company of the dead.
"'The place you desire,' and the place you fit yourself for, I must also say; because, observe, this court of the past differs from all living aristocracy in this:—it is open to labor and to merit, but to nothing else. No wealth will bribe, no name overawe, no artifice deceive, the guardian of those Elysian gates. In the deep sense, no vile or vulgar person ever enters there."
A small bookcase need not be expensive to be pretty, and a small revolving bookcase, made especially for holding books of reference, is a delight to a reader.
Many of the large publishing houses keep on sale pictures of authors. Twenty-five cents will buy the portrait of almost any well-known author. These are usually wood-engravings and excellent of their kind, well printed on good paper, in size about ten by twelve inches. For the same picture on India paper (which, of course, is more durable and admits of a finer impression) one dollar may be asked, and the extra money will be well spent. A neatly framed portrait of the favorite author of a friend will make a charming gift at but small cost.
Other pictures—photographs of famous pictures, for instance—may be bought at a low figure and framed. But pictures are like books: there is an infinite variety to choose from, and the price for either can be made high enough to suit the most lavish giver.
Many make it a practice to subscribe to some favorite magazine or paper, as a Christmas gift; and those who wish to confer an ever new pleasure may well bear this in mind. With so many capital publications, devoted to all imaginable tastes and pursuits, a choice will not be difficult. Children, especially, enjoy receiving their own papers and magazines, and a present of this kind can, by a payment far from large, be guaranteed to last one year—a surety which can never be furnished with any toy, no matter how expensive or durable.
Very young girls have a weakness for ribbons, sashes, perfumery, bangles, and fancy pins, and one can do worse than to moderately indulge these innocent vanities.
Family servants should share the Christmas joy; and appropriate gifts, such as print or neat woolen dresses, aprons, or a pocketbook with perhaps a coin or bill in it, will never come amiss.
The mothers—the housekeepers—are the easiest to cater for at this season of puzzled shoppers. There are hundreds of dainty articles which the true home-maker will welcome. Anything to beautify the home can hardly fail to please;—silver, china, articles of cut-glass, or choice napery for the table, a Japanese umbrella-stand, a work-basket prettily fitted up and with perhaps a silver or gold thimble in its own little pocket, a linen scarf for the sideboard embroidered or finished with "drawn work," a shopping-bag, or embroidered scarfs of the pretty China silks now so much used in decoration. Other gifts might be vinaigrettes, silver glovebuttoners, crocheted slippers, dainty aprons, ivory brushes and combs, stationery, pocketbooks, card-cases or address-books. In presenting any of the latter gifts it will show an added thoughtfulness on the part of the giver to have the name, or at least the initials, of the recipient printed in gilt letters on the article, if it be of leather. The added cost for this work is very trifling. In the same way the value of a box of stationery is much enhanced if the giver has had the address of the recipient stamped upon the upper right-hand corner of the paper.
A little time and thoughtful work may produce very delightful results. A lady of my acquaintance was greatly pleased with a certain beautiful story which appeared in a well-known weekly paper. It was not possible to obtain the story in any other form, so her niece bought two copies of the paper containing it, as it was printed on both sides of the page. After cutting the story out neatly in columns and pasting these into one long strip, the whole piece was measured and then carefully pasted in even double columns upon sheets of heavy paper of a size which left a broad margin. Then the margins were decorated with delicate sprays of flowers painted in sepia, and the name of the story in fancy letters appeared on the thicker sheet of paper which served as a cover. Round holes were made with an instrument which is manufactured for that purpose, and all the sheets, eleven in number, were tied together with a ribbon. On the last page a copy of a famous painting of the Madonna, prominently mentioned in the story, was mounted. The result was a really lovely little gift-book, sure to please her who received it.
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